


You need to know the truth

by filhadoboto



Series: Wishes for Season 8 [9]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Brienne admits that she loves him, Brienne defends Jaime, Brienne talks to Dany, Brienne tells the truth about Aerys' death, Dany and Missandei give her advice, F/M, Gen, Implied Jonerys, a conversation between girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:33:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/filhadoboto/pseuds/filhadoboto
Summary: Brienne goes to Queen Daenerys to talk about Jaime and her father’s murder.





	You need to know the truth

**Author's Note:**

> Brienne is a loyal person and I can see her defending Jaime in front of everyone in Winterfell.
> 
> English is not my native language, sorry for grammar errors. In google translate I trust!

"The Lord's reaction to your arrival was better than I had expected after all I heard about them, Your Grace." Missandei commented as she combed the Queen's hair in her chambers.

 

Daenerys smiled as she remembered the reaction of the northern Lords when they met her. Definitely, none of them had seen a woman with valyrian features in their lives, and when she had entered the great hall beside Jon and Arya, dressed in the colors of the Targaryen house, everyone had looked at her with wondering eyes and drooping jaws. And perhaps the surprise made them more receptive to hearing and understanding once and for all what was the real reason for her presence in the North.

 

"You're right, my friend. I also hoped they would be far more stubborn and resistant to my presence, but what I didn’t expect was that Jon would have defenders as stout and loyal as little Lady Lyanna Mormont."

 

Missandei smiled. "Ser Jorah's cousin is very much like you, Your Grace. She doesn’t like injustice and is loyal and brave. She faced the other Lords fiercely and fearlessly and made them see reason."

 

When some Lords began to insist that the North should continue as a separate kingdom from the other six kingdoms, Lady Mormont had raised her voice above everyone's in the great hall and asked if they were blind to what Daenerys was doing to help the North and all Westeros and invited those who didn’t want to accept her as the legitimate Queen, to defend their lands without the help of her army. From that moment any voice against Daenerys had shut up.

 

"Yes, it was a pleasant surprise. And I was very happy to see Jorah reuniting with what is left of his family. He already paid for the mistakes he made and hopefully not just Lady Lyanna, but all the other Lords will accept him back in the North."

 

"I hope they also accept that their King and you are together."

 

"Me too. So far, he told only Arya and she was very happy with the news. Jon said he didn’t even have to open his mouth. By the time they were alone, she demanded to know the whole story. But we agreed to wait for a better time to tell the rest of his family and the Lords."

 

"I think some people already know, Your Grace." said Missandei with a faint smile on her lips. "Or at least they _suspect_ something else is going on between the two of you."

 

"What makes you think so?"

 

Missandei glanced at the huge albino direwolf sleeping peacefully in front of the fireplace. Dany smiled. From the moment Jon had introduced her to his direwolf, the animal had followed her around relentlessly, as if she were its human, not Jon. "You really think only because Ghost follows me everywhere, will people _conclude_ that there is something between Jon and me?"

 

"Yes, Your Grace, I do. And not only for that. The marks on your skin sure look suspicious." she said, and lightly touched the marks left by Jon on her neck.

 

There were many other neck-like marks scattered all over her body that reminded her of the wonderful moments Jon and she had been sharing since that first night on the ship.

 

"I'll have to find a way to hide them all."

 

"In this cold, it will be easy. It would be much harder if we were still in Meereen, Your Grace."

 

Dany smiled, thinking of Jon's reaction if he saw her in the dresses she used to wear on Meereen. Something told her that he would surely turn into rags in a few seconds any of her dresses made of lightweight fabrics and she would enjoy it _very much_. It might be worth feeling cold for a few minutes just to see Jon's reaction when he sneaked into her quarters in the middle of the night. They both knew it was a dangerous game, but after spending weeks together on the boat heading north, the two of them failed to comply with the agreement to stay away from each other until they could tell everyone they were together. Jon had surprised her in her rooms late at night and she threw herself into his arms immediately. If he hadn’t gone to her, she herself would have come looking for him.

 

A faint knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Missandei opened it and announced that Lady Brienne wanted to see her.

 

Daenerys remembered the woman very well. She had been with Jon during the meeting at the Dragon Pit representing the Stark family, and when all had gone wrong, she had seen her try to persuade Jaime Lannister to argue with his sister for the truce. Already in Winterfell, Daenerys sometimes saw her in the training yard teaching her young squire or training with Arya or teaching men, women, and young who would fight in the impending war to wield a sword.

 

She nodded and Missandei allowed her inside.

 

"Your Grace." greeted her.

 

"Lady Brienne, please, sit down."

 

"You don’t have to call me Lady, Your Grace."

 

"As you wish. Would you like a glass of wine or maybe an infusion of herbs?"

 

"No, thank you, Your Grace. I'm sorry for disturbing you so early, but I'd like to talk to you. If it's your will, of course."

 

"Of course, La... Brienne. What brings you to me?" Brienne looked at Missandei, who had gone back to work quietly braiding the Queen's hair "Don’t worry, Missandei is of my _utmost_ confidence. You can also trust that whatever you say here will not be heard by anyone else."

 

Brienne nodded. "I'd like to talk about..." she hesitated and took a deep breath, drawing her courage, before continuing. "I'd like to talk about Ser Jaime Lannister, Your Grace." Daenerys frowned, but nodded, encouraging Brienne to continue speaking. "I know Your Grace must know that Ser Jaime killed your father, King Aerys." Dany nodded and she continued, "But what you should not know is _what_ _drove_ him to do it."

 

"It is known to all that Ser Jaime killed my father to help put the usurper on the throne."

 

"Yes, that's what everyone thinks, but it wasn’t for this reason that he broke his vows."

 

"No?"

 

"No. He told me why. And since I know he's too proud to tell you the truth, I'd like to tell you his reasons."

 

"I'm curious, Brienne. Please continue." Dany said, and waited for the other woman to continue.

 

Brienne had spent hours thinking about how she would say everything Jaime had told her. And the only form that seemed believable, that could lead someone to believe his words just as she had believed, was telling everything from the beginning. She looked the Queen in the eye and started. "King Robb had captured Ser Jaime and taken him to Riverrun when I met him. Lady Catelyn Stark was devastated by her husband's death and wanted her daughters, who were captives of Queen Cersei, back at any cost, so she made the decision to trade Ser Jaime for them. We went to his cell and she made him promise to send her daughters safely to Riverrun if she released him and he promised. Like her sworn sword, Lady Catelyn entrusted me with the task of taking Ser Jaime to King’s Landing safely and taking her daughters back.”

 

“During our trip, we had a chance to get to know each other, we faced many things together and learned to trust each other, I saved his life and he saved mine. Shortly after leaving Riverrun we were captured by Lord Rose Bolton's men, Ser Jaime managed to prevent me from being raped by our captors and ended up having his hand severed. He barely survived, but he resisted long enough until we were taken to Harrenhal and a maester took care of his wounds."

 

"When we were there, he ended up telling me what had happened on the night of the sacking of King’s Landing. I don’t know what led him to tell me everything, maybe he feared he would die and wanted someone else to know the truth. Or maybe, after all we've been through together, he decided to trust me. But _whatever_ the reason, he told me about how King Aerys was obsessed with wildfire and that he _enjoyed_ watching while people burned. The King burned not only the people he disliked but also those who disobeyed him or who were against him or who betrayed him, even if some of these people were guilty only in his paranoid mind. Before long, he had earned himself the reputation of mad king and gotten half of the country against him and began to see traitors everywhere. He even thought that Prince Rhaegar was conspiring with the Lords of the whole kingdom to remove him from the throne. This increasing paranoia caused the King to order the pyromancers to place jars with wildfire scattered throughout the city, including the Red Keep."

 

"The successive victories of the rebels diminished the forces under the command of the crown and the death of your brother in the Battle of the Trident caused the dispersion of the rest. So when Lord Tywin Lannister arrived at the gates of the city promising to help defend King’s Landing against the attack of the rebel forces and the King ordered that they let him in, Ser Jaime protested and asked the King not to allow his father to enter and _surrender peacefully_. He knew his father very well, and knew that Lord Tywin would never choose the losing side in the war, and that after Prince Rhaegar's death, Robert's victory was _imminent_. But the King ignored Ser Jaime’s and Lord Varys’ appeals and gave attention to Grand Maester Pycelle when he said that the King could trust the Lannisters, for they had always been friends of the crown. The King ordered the gates to be opened, Lord Tywin entered the city with his soldiers and began looting the city. Meanwhile, Ser Jaime once again asked that your father _surrender_ , but instead he ordered Ser Jaime to bring _his father's head_ and told the pyromancer to _burn everyone_ in King’s Landing."

 

Brienne took a deep breath before continuing. "But Ser Jaime _couldn’t_ keep those orders, he _couldn’t_ kill his own father, he _couldn’t_ stand still while watching thousands of men, women and children burning." She closed her eyes briefly, remembering the pain she'd seen in Jaime's face as he'd told her everything. Daenerys and Missandei stared at her in horror as she continued. "First he killed the pyromancer, to prevent the order to burn the city was fulfilled. And when the King tried to flee, Ser Jaime stabbed him in the back. Even injured your father kept saying _'burn them all, burn them all'_ , as if he didn’t realize that he himself would perish in the fire like everyone else in town, so Jaime cut his throat. And so it was that Lord Eddard Stark found him, sword and honor stained by the blood of the King he had sworn to protect, and Lord Eddard found him guilty without even bothering to hear what Jaime had to say. Since then he has lived through the judgment of other people and has kept that truth to himself."

 

Brienne stared at the flames in the fireplace as she continued, "I understood that Ser Jaime had made a great sacrifice and I put myself in his place and thought: _would I have the courage to do the same, to stain my honor, to break a vow to save the lives of other people?_ When I realized that I would have done the same thing if I were in his place, I came to see him in another way." She smiled slightly and continued, "He did what he did to save the lives of all the people in King’s Landing. And all he _received_ in return was the disdain and scorn of all those whose lives he saved. That's why I know he wouldn’t tell you the truth. He got used to _living_ with the judgment of people and _carrying_ the weight of his deeds."

 

For some time, Daenerys said nothing. She knew that her father had been capable of much _cruelty_ , but she never imagined that he was mad _enough_ to order the destruction of King’s Landing and all its inhabitants with wildfire.

 

"I'm grateful to hear the truth, Brienne. Many people who knew my father closely told me about his obsession with wildfire and about his paranoia, but knowing that he came to _that point_... burn King’s Landing... My father _really deserved_ the nickname of mad king." Daenerys took a deep breath. "And I want to assure you that it wasn’t in my plans to execute Ser Jaime for what he did to my father or because of the terrible things that his family did to mine. If I wanted the Lannister dead, I would have executed Lord Tyrion instead of making him Hand of the Queen."

 

Brienne looked at her with wide eyes. "Your Grace, you can not imagine how relieved I am to hear you say it."

 

Dany held out her hand to the other woman and she held it, uncertain. "Ser Jaime is very lucky to have a woman who loves him so much. I hope he knows how to value all this love."

 

Brienne's face turned red and she averted her eyes from Dany's face. "I... I _don’t_ love him, my Queen. Not _this_ way. I just _admire_ him."

 

Dany and Missandei exchanged a look and smiled.

 

"Don’t try to fool yourself, Brienne. You love him." the Queen repeated. Brienne looked at her and hoped to find on her face the same mocking look she found on most people's faces, but there was only a sweet smile and the look was of who understood her.

 

Brienne couldn’t help but smile.

 

She had long been trying to deny the truth to herself, but after what she had just done for Jaime, there was no more reason to deny that...

 

"Yes, I love him. Even though everyone will think me a fool for loving him. Even knowing that he chose to stay with his sister after all she did." Jaime's words echoed in her mind, " _But we don’t choose who we love._ "

 

"You're right, we don’t choose." she agreed as she exchanged a look of complicity with Missandei. "But that doesn’t mean we cannot be happy." To Brienne's surprise, Dany laid her hand on her cheek gently. "It just means that if we want to be happy, we have to fight for our happiness."

 

"My Lady, will you allow me to give you some advice?" Asked Missandei and Brienne nodded. "Don’t let him go to war without knowing how you feel about him. Maybe you will not get a second chance to say."

 

Brienne thought for a moment. Her voice was filled with sadness when she said, "He loves his sister."

 

"After everything you've just told us, I'd say he's not as indifferent as you might think. He confided to you what he had never told anyone, not even to his sister. He saved you from being raped!" Daenerys offered.

 

"He also saved me from a bear and gave me an armor and a valyrian steel sword." she added timidly.

 

"Did he save you from a bear?" Repeated Missandei in surprise.

 

"Yes. The men who captured us didn’t get my father to pay for the absurd rescue they wanted so they thought it would be fun to watch me fight a bear with only a wooden sword. Ser Jaime had been sent to King’s Landing and came back to rescue me when he learned that my father hadn’t paid my rescue and we went to King’s Landing together so he could fulfill the promise he had made to Lady Catelyn."

 

"I was in the Dragon Pit and I saw how he looked at you, My Lady." Missandei added, "That is not the look of an _indifferent_ man. And the biggest proof of that is the murderous look on his sister's face when she saw you two looking at each other."

 

Brienne thought for a few seconds, "What if I say I love him and he... and he _rejects_ me?"

 

"What if he _doesn’t_ reject you?" Asked Daenerys.

 

Brienne smiled and her astonishing blue eyes flashed, "I think I would feel the luckiest and happiest woman in Westeros." Then her face grew serious. "But I cannot. I vowed to protect Lady Catelyn's daughters and even if Ser Jaime loves me, I couldn’t leave them."

 

"I'm sure the two would release you from this vote if that is your wish and what is at stake is your happiness, my lady." said Missandei.

 

"What if they think I'm betraying them or betraying their family?"

 

"I know a lot of bad things happened between the Stark and the Lannister and some are hard to forgive." Dany began. "But you're not a Stark or a northerner, Brienne. There is nothing to prevent you from staying with him and I believe neither of the two sisters will find any trouble in freeing you of your oath so you can stay with the man you love. _Even_ if he's Jaime Lannister."

 

The Queen's words filled her heart with hope. "Would it be daring of me to ask you how you told Lord Jon that you loved him?"

 

Dany glanced at Missandei who gave her a look that said, _'I told you everyone had already noticed._ '

 

"I'm sorry, Your Grace. I didn’t want to..."

 

"It's okay, Brienne." Dany interrupted. "It's just that I _thought_ we were being subtle."

 

Brienne smiled and shook her head. "Not enough for the eyes of anyone _watching_ you both." She said and glanced at Ghost's sleeping body.

 

Dany smiled and replied, "I said I loved him after we made love for the first time. The words simply came out of my mouth and then he held me in his arms and said that he loved me too. But I think it was clear to both of us that I loved him when I went beyond the Wall with my three dragons to rescue him and his companions."

 

"I hope you two can live this love, Your Grace. Lord Jon is an honorable and gentle man and, after all he's been through, he deserves to be happy with the woman he loves."

 

A knock on the door interrupted them.

 

"Your Grace, Lord Jon asked to inform you that Ser Jaime Lannister has just arrived at Winterfell."

 

"Thanks. Please tell Lord Jon that I will join them soon."

 

Dany and Missandei looked at Brienne and there was a slight blush on her cheeks.

 

"And then? What are you going to do?" Dany asked.

 

Brienne looked at the two of them and stood resolutely. "It's time to open my heart to Jaime Lannister."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to see these three talking about their loved ones. Dany and Missandei are the perfect people to talk about this sort of thing with Brienne without making her feel like a freak and less deserving of love for not being a woman like the others. Daenerys e Missandei respect and accept people as they are and I would love to see the three women becoming friends.
> 
> Thanks for reading it!
> 
> Did you like it? Leave a comment. Leave kudos.
> 
> Say "Hello" to me on Tumblr and Twitter: @filhadoboto


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